Malaria

In 2001, our eldest son Charles, returned home from serving in the Peace Corps in Zambia, Africa.  He had not finished his tour but the Peace Corps insisted he end his two-year commitment early since they surmised he had fallen into depression and seemed emotionally spent.  It was a difficult term as he was the first Peace Corps Volunteer in his village and could not convince the villagers that clean well water was better for them than polluted river water.  Fetching water from the river was women’s work and well digging was men’s work.  They would have water whether or not the well was dug.

Feeling quite discouraged, he traveled around Namibia for about 2 weeks then headed home via Germany.  He had wanted to spend two weeks visiting relatives in Austria but that did not work out so he just came home.

Once home, he began readjusting.  He seemed to have a cold with sniffles that came and went.  Four days later, the “cold” returned more strongly, this time with a high fever.  The fever would go down but spike a few days later.  He surmised it was malaria as he had been warned of it and seen it in Africa.  He said they just iced them to bring the fever down.  I applied many cold packs and the fever subsided.  After a couple of worsening bouts of this, I decided the emergency room was in order. 

At the first emergency room visit at the nearest hospital, the paperwork took so long, the fever subsided and he was normal by the time the doctor saw him.  There were no signs of distress.  Charles shared that he thought it might be malaria but since the doctor had no experience with malaria he referred him to a specialist.  The specialist appointment would not be until a week later.

The next night, the fever spiked again.  Charles was shaking uncontrollably and said we needed to put him in the bathtub with ice.  Months ago, our bathtub stopper broke and since we never used the bathtub except to shower, I just never got around to fixing it.  Now I needed it.  So I then called a neighbor/friend Gene.

“May we use your bathtub?” I asked.

“What for?” Gene quipped at this strange request.

“We need to put Charles in ice to bring down the fever.  The stopper in ours is broken.”

“Of course.  Come on over.”

 We bundled up a shivering Charles for the trip over.  The bathtub water was running cold and all the ice in the house was dumped on him.

This was now ten at night.

 “Can we have all the ice you’ve got?”  Gene asked his neighbor.

“Sure.  What’s going on?”

“Charles has a spiked fever that we are trying to bring down.  He thinks it’s malaria.”

“Take him right now to Hoag Hospital Emergency where I work.  I will call the infectious disease specialist to meet you there,” volunteered the neighbor.

 Upon arriving at the emergency room, the fever had subsided and Charles was “normal” again.  This is what happened the last time we went to the ER.  This time he was given Tylenol for muscular pain.  Blood work was done and the specialist gave orders to admit Charles and start treatment.

 It seems that because Charles stopped taking the Malaria preventative pills once he returned home, the disease flared up.

 This infectious disease doctor had studied in Africa and when he learned where in Zambia Charles was, he knew exactly the strain of malaria he had and what proper treatment was needed.  After a week in the hospital, Charles was released and deemed cured.  The doctor then told us the extent of his attack was serious and it was halted just in time.  Most people die from it.  Had Charles not returned home when he did, he probably would not have survived as this treatment is very specialized found only in few places in the world. Orange County, CA is one.

 God works all things for good for those who love him and are called to his purposes.

Charles' Name

I was expecting our first child, a son.  We had attended all the birthing classes, had the overnight suitcase ready, and notified our parents.  We were advised to go to the hospital when contractions were 10 minutes apart. 

At about 6 PM on February 9, 1974, the contractions started.  At 10 PM they were 10 minutes apart.  Rich had made himself some boiled eggs to take along in case this was going to last till morning.

          At 10 PM I checked into the hospital and began the adventure.  Rich was there coaching me, encouraging me to breathe “whoo, whoo, whoo” every time a contraction started.  This went on until 6 AM the next morning.  We were both tired. 

The doctor came in to check on me then said, “Just a little more to go.”

Meanwhile Rich said, “My boiled eggs are on the counter at home.  I don’t dare leave you now.  Maybe I can go quickly to the cafeteria to get something.” 

Just then a nurse came in and offered him a breakfast tray!  I should not eat but he could.

The hours went by until 2 PM, all the time “whoo, whoo, whooing,” every 5 minutes or so. 

Finally, the doctor said “I think we need to do a Cesarian section as I don’t think this baby is going to come out on his own.  You’re too little to birth him.”  I was only 85lbs and 4’10 tall.  I had gained 25 lbs over the 9 months.

Because this was now considered surgery, Rich had to wait in the waiting room.  I was exhausted after 18 hours of labor.  Being numbed was a blessing.  It seemed that in no time I was holdinga crying baby boy, 6lb, 11 oz of joy!

The next day, a hospital office clerk came to me to verify the information for his birth certificate.

She asked: “Mrs. Vogl, you have a lovely baby boy.  What will be the child’s name?”

“Charles,” I answered.

 “Vogel?  Spelled Vogel?”

“No.  Vogl”

“Oh.  Vogal”

“No.  Vogl”

“Do you mean Vogle?”

“No.  Vogl.”

“No “e”?  Vogl?”

“Yes. No ‘e’”

“What will the middle name be?”

“Hong-Sun”

“How do you spell that?”

“H-O-N-G- (Hyphen) S-U-N,” I spelled slowly.

“What kind of name is that?”

“Chinese.”

“HONG-SUN?”

“Yes.”

Pause…

How do you want to spell Charles?

Vogl Family Pets

Sunday was a dog

Both Rich and I had grown up with pets dogs so when we learned a neighbor’s dog had a litter of puppies only a week old, we had to see.  Oh, they were cute black fluffs with brown eyebrows.  We brought one home as soon as it was weaned.  What shall we name her?  Because we brought her home on a Sunday, “Sunday” seemed like an appropriate name.

          Sunday was part of the household before our children Charles and James were born.  She was loving and yet feisty at times.  She too had a litter that was a joy for the children to see.  When she was old, she began losing body functions and we had to say goodbye. 

Friday was a canary

Friday was our rolling canary with a song that had a rolling warble.  She would kick her food out of the cage that hung in the living room.  Although I vacuumed up the birdseed, I was unaware rain leaked into the living room carpet.  A week later we had birdseed growing in the carpet under the cage.

Tuesday was a hamster

We had a dog named Sunday, a bird named Friday, now a hamster named Tuesday.  This was Stephanie’s hamster.  She wanted it in her room all to herself.  Little did she know, hamsters are nocturnal animals and run all night in the wheel.  No sleeping at night.  He got moved quickly out of her room into the playroom.

Beagle

After Sunday died, we got a Beagle from a rescue group.  It would have been fun to have a “snoopy dog” until I discovered him chewing on the dining table leg.  There was no stopping him.  Back he went to the rescue people.  He didn’t stay long enough to get a name.

Goldie

A 5-month-old golden retriever with no tag or ID came to our backyard.  He was docile and very loveable.  Of course, I fed him.  We put up signs all around the neighborhood trying to find his owner but no response came so we adopted him.

Two weeks later he was shot with a bullet in his belly.  I took him to the vet and was told it was too dangerous to operate.  After two days, the vet said there was nothing they could do that I could not do at home.  He would either make it or not. Keep him confined, feed the vitamins with the food, and administer the antibiotics daily on schedule.  I learned how to give the dog pills wrapped in bread. Of course, I added prayer. 

After 2 weeks, he had perked up and when I took him back to the vet, the assistants said they thought they would never see him again.

Goldie now had the run of the neighborhood and neighbors complained he was in their yards.  Although he was not causing problems, they didn’t want him roaming.  So we had to fence our one-acre property in the hills.  For $3000 we were able to keep our “free” thoroughbred Golden retriever.

As Goldie grew to full size, it became questionable who was going for a walk.  80 pounds of me could not control 75 pounds of him.  We enrolled in dog-obedience school.  After 6 weeks, we could walk together. As he got older, he was like a furry rug when lying on the floor.  He too lived 15 years.

Sugar

This was a small cockerpoo that we bought for Rich for Easter because he wanted a lap dog, which 75 pound Goldie was not. She was white as you can guess which is why the kids named her Sugar. She became James’ favorite pet or rather James became her favorite.  She slept with him, played with him, and followed him all over.  It was fun to have Goldie and Sugar together.

After 12 years, she developed tumors on her abdomen.  One day, after I removed her collar for a bath, she somehow ran away with no ID.  We hoped she would find her way back home as usual.  The next day we called around the neighborhood, and put up signs but no results. It seems she perched herself on a neighbor’s pool chair and would not let anyone near her.  That neighbor said they didn’t know she was our dog and called the pound to pick her up because she was acting strange and not friendly.  She was almost vicious and animal control had a problem with her.  By the time we check with the pound, it was too late as she had been put down because of the tumors.  We were told they thought she was in pain as she would not let anyone near her.

Peter was a brown rabbit

Can’t remember how we got him.  At first, he was in a rabbit cage in the house and allowed to run around supervised.  As the kids got busy with less time to play with him, we decided to let him run around in the chicken coop. We saw rabbits with chickens in the local petting zoo. Peter would chase the chickens regularly until one day he got out of the coop and we never saw him again.

Chickens

When we moved to the Overhill house, there was a horse stable and a chicken coop in the backyard.  No horse but 3 chickens and a rooster came with the property.  The rooster was a banty rooster who thought he was a big shot.  We would let them run about in the backyard scratching for bugs during the day and in at night to be safe from marauding coyotes. 

One day as I looking out the kitchen window, the neighbor’s African Ridgebacks had gotten out of their yard.  The overconfident banty rooster puffed himself up and confronted the ridgebacks.  One of them just snapped him up in its mouth and ran off.  I was not about to chase after those ridgebacks so I just waved goodbye to the rooster. 

Meanwhile, we dismantled the horse stable and chicken coop.  A new coop was built elsewhere on the property opening the view of the hills.  We collected Rhode-Island Reds, Anacondas, and leghorns as baby chicks.  We exchanged vegetable scraps for fresh eggs.  The new rooster was mean and would chase whoever was feeding them.  We even had ducks that came as ducklings on Easter.  When full-grown, unfortunately, one night they became coyote dinner.

One day, there was a whole lot of commotion in the coop.  When Rich went to check, he found all the chickens dead.  As he peered into the cage from the outside, a bobcat leaped at him from the inside—scared him crazy.  On the recommendation of animal control, he sprinkled flour outside the door to mark bobcat tracks, then left the door open for the night.  The next day, there were tracks in the flour and all the dead chickens were gone.  There must have been several trips as all four chickens were gone.

          The wire in the roof of the coop had a weak spot where the bobcat fell in while snooping on the roof. Once inside, he was trapped.  We were warned the bobcat will be back for seconds on dinner.  At that, decided to take down the coop and give up chickens.

I feel guilty about throwing away food scraps and I miss the fresh eggs.

Goldfish

For his 6^th birthday, James wanted two fish.  He tried to describe the fish but I could not get a mental picture of it.  I took him to pet shops and fish stores. We could not find the ones he wanted.  All the exotic fish in the tanks were not the ones.  Finally, on one of our trips, he wandered around the store and shouted out “I found them!”  Rushing to see, we discovered he wanted feeder goldfish.  With more than a hundred swimming in the tank, the attendant carefully scooped out the 2 he wanted.  I bought a fishbowl with some sand and aquarium plants.

          While at home admiring his new fish, James cried out “We have to take them back!  They’re broken.”  I could not imagine how these fish were broken.  Because he had only looked at fish in picture books, he did not realize they had gills that move.  When he saw these live fish with moving gills, he thought they must be broken.  It took a while to convince him they were normal.  He cared for those fish lovingly.  At one point, I thought one was going die as it was floating at the top of the tank but gills still moving.  James carefully fed this fish until it revived!

The Snake

James’ friend was moving and could not take his snake with him so James offered to keep it temporarily.  It was in a large fish tank with a cover that seemed secure.  (Rich cannot stand snakes and would have been alarmed had he known it was in the house.)  Unbeknownst to us, the snake escaped.  James kept it a secret and every day looked for it hoping neither his mother nor father would accidentally find it.  Fortunately, he found it a week later and returned it to his friend.

Oatie

After Goldie and Sugar died, we thought we would not have a dog for a while as the kids were no longer home to help take care of pets and we wanted to be free to travel.  That didn’t last very long.  Rich found a dog online that said, “I belong to you!”  Monty had been hit by a car, had leg surgery but was now fine except for a little limp. He was a rescue dog which we thought we could just pick up.  To our surprise, the rescue agent (doggie social worker) had to come to our home to see whether it was suitable for keeping a dog.  Fortunately, we passed the test, and Monty was left with us for a week’s trial run.  Within three days we decided we wanted to keep him.  He was a terrier/poodle mix with oatmeal-colored fur so we renamed him Oatie. 

He was ours for 15 years and the love of just about everyone who came to visit.  He had developed incurable liver problems and old age caught up to him until it was time to let him go.

Chelsea

Again we thought we would not get another pet so we could travel without worrying about a dog.  Suckers that we are, we browsed the internet for small dogs.  We saw a picture of a rescue dog that we thought we’d like.  When we went to see the dog it was not as cute as the photo…BUT the Schoodle (schnauzer/poodle mix) kept jumping up on Rich and gave the soulful look with her dark eyes.  She was available for adoption so we brought her home on a trial basis. 

She has been with us ever since.  She has been a handful to train but lovable.  Small enough to cuddle and large enough to take for real walks.  She’s our “baby” now and good company in a quiet house.  As she peers through the entry shutter, she warns us of the mail carrier, the Amazon deliveries, other dogs going by, and visiting friends & family.